This Sunday, we will still be in I Corinthians, this time, hearing all about love. This passage from a truly Pauline epistle is one we often hear at weddings:  Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it keeps no record of wrongs, it endures all things (I paraphrase). As it is read, you can almost feel a collective sigh in the congregation.  Hand silently clasps hand, an arm goes around the shoulders of a spouse, and eyes gaze on the beauty of the scene created by flowers, a glowing couple, and candlelight.

But guess what?  Paul wasn’t talking about romance when he was writing.  He didn’t sit down with his pen and say, “Hey, this would be really great at a wedding.” He didn’t envision young people who had just aimed that laser wand at all the stainless-steel items available at Target or having his words printed in every premarital counseling resource available today.  What he envisioned was all of us, glowing with romance or not, needing to care for one another in order to make the covenant community work.  He was not thinking about working your whole adult life to be in covenant with an attractive adult of your own choosing….he was thinking about getting along with the next-door neighbor you DID NOT choose for yourself.  He was thinking about getting along with folks that assemble at the OTHER party headquarters once a month for meetings.  He was thinking about getting along with folks that have DRIVEN YOU NUTS for forty years.  He was thinking about the elements of that big, huge, word LOVE that are not cute, not sexy, and certainly not easy.  He was not worried about keeping eros alive, but rather, keeping agape alive.

The question for us is, “How do we love one another when we really aren’t in the mood to do so?”  The good news is that love is bigger than all of us, better than all of us, and one step ahead of all of us.  Let’s work on this together Sunday morning.  See you there.